Multiple traveling salesman problem with drones: Mathematical model and heuristic approach

Kitjacharoenchai, P., Ventresca, M., Moshref-Javadi, M., Lee, S., Tanchoco, J. M. A., & Brunese, P. A. · 2019

citation-level

This paper formulates multiple trucks and multiple drones in which an aircraft may return to a different truck from the one that launched it. It is the citation for the difference from a single-truck flying sidekick. The model was not re-solved for this card.

A mixed-integer program represents drones that launch from a truck, deliver, and may recover at another nearby truck. The objective minimizes the time at which trucks and drones are back at the depot. An insertion heuristic is proposed for large problems and compared with single-truck and related models.

The flexibility to recover on another truck exists only if airspace and the schedule allow the meeting. Endurance, payload, or a rule can forbid that rendezvous, and then the modeled gain does not appear. Experiments up to about a hundred locations are not a city-wide plan.